How to learn from our mistakes: Communication of health crises

Resum

Reviewing the communication during the health crises of the last thirty years is useful to verify that there are a number of repeated mistakes: untrained spokespeople with no communication skills, ambiguous messages, lack of communication plans for the crisis, and improvisation, which end up communicating alarming messages to the population and contribute to administrations being considered suspicious or untrustworthy. The denaturalised rapeseed oil scandal, the mad cows disease, the influenza A virus, or the recent Ebola outbreak are clear examples of how not to communicate and offer valuable lessons for future crises.